Back in 2014, I had just written the first draft for my very first novel, Misty Fairchild and the Heart of Alignment, and didn’t know what to do with myself. I suspected I would want to publish my story eventually, but I didn’t know where to go or what to do.
I definitely knew my story wasn’t ready for publication yet.
While pondering what my next steps should be, and wishing for wisdom and guidance, I discovered that I lived mere minutes from an award winning author. I took a chance to reach out to her. One coffee date later, and she invited me to join the San Antonio Writer’s Guild.
I began attending weekly critique groups, and the monthly meetings. Writer workshops and retreats followed. I had thrown myself into writer’s boot camp and didn’t even know it. My writing improved by leaps and bounds, as did my subsequent drafts. One such life changing retreat was hosted by author Eric Witchey. I learned A LOT that weekend.
One of the biggest take aways from that event was a randomized story generator that Eric taught all of us. Several of the attendees decided to begin a biweekly meeting at that first author’s home wherein we would pull slips of paper from various bowls to set up the plot, genre, voice, style, etc of a story. Once we pulled our random elements, we set a timer and pounded out the beginnings of stories, which we would then go around the table and read to one another.
Some of these quick starts have gone on to become more for me, and sit in To-Do folders for future development. I turned one of these story starters into a flash fiction that went on to be developed into a short film, which then won an award on the film festival circuit!
I find these little jewels of unfinished work to be so much fun, and full of so much potential. Some of them sit in folders, percolating for perhaps future complete novels in their own right. Some characters I discovered through this process have gained their own projected series!
Joining with other writers in this round table of creation was a ton of fun, and kept my writer’s brain sharp and at the ready. I miss having those regular meetings to help keep me on task. To that end, I have created a segment of my own community to help foster this kind of creative spark.
I want to invite my fans to join me at my Patreon Page in creating new and future content. From the second tier, you gain access to reading some of those old Story Starters from 2014, as well as new content created through the prompts voted on by tiers three and above. I will post regular polls for readers give me the prompts for the next story starter. Folks can vote on genre, trope, POV, style, etc and I’ll write a one shot piece of fiction based on the winning prompts, to go out to my patrons on a weekly basis. That’s four short stories a month, PLUS serialized chapters of my current WIP, Adam Rowan and the Heart of the Mountain ahead of its release, on top of all the other content!
Expect shout-outs and future acknowledgments for content you prompt me to create!
Other tiers give the ability to interact with my characters (Dylan Rowan is very excited to start his very own advice column!) as well as exclusive access to community pages, early access to content, serialized chapters for my current and future WIPs, and much, much more.
I am really excited to see what kind of new things come about through this collaboration with my community, as well as making new friends along the way! Right now, if you sign up for my mailing list, you will receive an SNEAK-PEEK of book two, Adam Rowan and the Heart of the Mountain, PLUS the official cover reveal for book two! If you like what you read, you can continue the adventure by signing up for one of my Patreon tiers, link at the end of the first three chapters!
I really hope to see you there!
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